Chapter 22

Two days later, it finally happened! Erik had found himself sleeping comfortably in a guest room due to Gabrielle's condition. He couldn't stand sleeping on the edge of the bed anymore, especially with someone as mean and hostile as she was being even if he had to wear his mask when he slept.

Catherine burst into his room screaming,

"Erik! Erik! Wake up! It's happening!" And she left the room with that. Erik laid in bed for a moment trying to figure that woman out when Lucie burst into the room with a candelabrum and said,

"Monsieur it is time for you to get up, the Madame is having her baby." Erik jumped up and almost toppled out of bed and Lucie stifled a giggle until he stood up all the way. He had nothing but a pair of pants on and usually he would try to keep his modesty, but he didn't even notice until Lucie continued to stare at his upper torso.

"Is she in our bedroom?" He asked and she just nodded while he ran past her. He ran all the way to the privacy of their bedroom, past Catherine in the hall and burst right in the room. The midwife gave out a little shriek at this madman bursting in the room with barely any clothes on.

"Oh Erik!" Gabrielle moaned from the bed.

"Is it happening right now?" He asked walking over to where she lay.

"Oh no, we still have a lot of time left." The midwife answered.

"It's just so painful." Gabrielle said squeezing her eyes shut.

"Is there anything you can give her?" He shouted at the midwife. She just shook her head.

"You have got to be kidding me!" He shouted again. Gabrielle opened her eyes and looked at him,

"Erik, please, you're making me more upset." He looked at her in disbelief but tried to remember what she was going through.

"I'm sorry dear, it's just that this is already hard enough on me, and with you getting all worked up, it's even harder." He continued to look at her and she rubbed her hand along his bare arm and shoulder.

"I just need you to wait and stay calm, so I can do this. Get some clothes and wait patiently with my mother." She said before she began squeezing her eyes shut again and let out a little moan of pain.

"Sir I need you to leave." The midwife said coming over to him. He quickly got in the dresser and collected some clothes, his robe and slippers and left the room. He stepped out into the hall where Catherine stood anxiously and dropped his bundle next to her.

"I would recommend you putting something more on." She said with a bit of hostility. As he bent down to grab his robe, he rolled his eyes at her remark. He picked up his robe, put it around himself and tied it in the front very tight. He put on his slippers and said,

"It's going to be awhile so we might as well go downstairs and wait besides standing here in the hall." Catherine agreed telling Erik that it took her twelve hours with Gabrielle. He gave out a loud sigh followed by a smile from her and they both walked down to the kitchen.

"Jesus! It's five in the morning!" Erik said loudly looking at the wall clock.

"Yes, it is quite early. I guess your child will be waking you up early from now on." Catherine added.

"Oh I never thought about that. This one is different; I'm actually going to be taking care of it instead of always visiting it like my daughter." Catherine smiled at his remark, she wondered if this child would be more important to Erik than his daughter, but in all reality Erik would love both the same.

"Would you like some breakfast?" He asked her walking over to the kitchen cupboard.

"I honestly can't eat a thing, I'm so nervous." She answered. Erik looked back into the cupboard at all the food and sighed,

"Neither can I, but I guess coffee would be all right. How about for you?" She nodded at him and he took a bag of beans from the shelf. He didn't normally drink coffee, it was evident from all the bags of Russian tea leaves in their cupboard, but that didn't sound appetizing for his knotting stomach. He took the bag over to the counter and began crushing some of the beans and took out the percolator.

"I need to wake one of the household staff and have them go to the office to tell Jean I won't be in for a long time." He said with his back turned on Catherine, his hands shook as he tried to work the thing finally resulting in some of the beans spilling on the floor.

"You know Erik, why don't you go to work? Gabrielle's birthing process will probably take a long time and all you can do is sit around here and worry. It will get your mind off things." Erik spun around as if the words had been spoken to him were foreign.

"What? Are you crazy or something? I am not going to leave my wife in her time of need." He said with such anger of such a suggestion.

"Erik, I am being serious. All you can do is sit around, wait and worry."

"I k now, I know, but I want her to know that I am sitting around waiting and worrying. I want her to know that I'm near."

"Erik, she knows that you're here for her. She's not going to know if you're here or not anyway because you can't be in that room. Nobody can." He turned back around to finish brewing the coffee and thought about what she said. When he finally poured two cups and set them along with cream and sugar on the table, he said,

"I guess it won't hurt to go in for a little while. I'm just so damn nervous, I don't know what to do." He said sitting down across from her at the table.

"Of course you are anyone in your position would be nervous. Catherine added some cream and sugar to her cup while Erik sipped on his black.

"Well I command you, if something begins to happen I want you to send someone to me right away."

"I will, I will." Catherine promised and continued sipping on her coffee slowly. Erik finished his in one more nervous gulp and practically ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. He burst into his bedroom where Gabrielle was laying silently in the bed with a book in her hand. The midwife sat in a nearby chair and shot up at Erik's presence.

"Monsieur! You need to get out of here at once!" She said running over to him but Gabrielle spoke from the bed.

"It's all right Madame. Let him in." Erik rushed right over to where she was laying and kneeled nervously on the floor beside the bed.

"What is it dear?" Gabrielle asked so peacefully stroking his sweaty hair.

"Is it all right if I go into the office for a little while? Your mother suggested it to me saying that all I could do was sit around, wait and worry. But I wanted to check with you first because if you want me to stay here so you know that I am beside you even if it's not in this room then I will, I don't have to go to the office. What a terrible, selfish beast I am, I can't believe I actually considered it, forgive me my dear, I…" Gabrielle cut him off when he started to get really nervous.

"Erik! Stop! You're acting ridiculous. Listen, I'm fine, our child is fine, it's going to be awhile now. I am quite relaxed for half hours at a time, so you go to that office, keep your mind off things and act as if it's another day." He stood up nervously wiping his sweaty palms on his robe.

"Well, I told your mother to send someone out if anything begins to happen."

"I'm sure she'll do that then. Now go!" She demanded with a light laugh which turned into a moan of pain. She dropped her book on the floor and Erik screamed out of nervousness.

"What's wrong with her?" He shouted as the midwife slowly made her way out of her chair over to where Gabrielle lay.

"Nothing Monsieur, this is what is going to happen until she has your child. She will get these cramps now and then until they become very frequent. She's having one now and the length of time in between them helps us estimate what time your child will be born." Erik looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language and Gabrielle finally calmed back down again and asked Erik to retrieve her book off the floor for her as if everything had been normal. He stared at her for a moment and did what he was asked. He then planted a kiss on her forehead and told her he wouldn't be gone long and left the room.

As soon as the door closed, Gabrielle let out a sigh of relief.

"He's more nervous than I am and I'm the one who's doing all the work!" The midwife smiled at her and said,

"Yes, sometimes I feel like I have to take more care of the fathers than the mothers." Gabrielle let out a small chuckle and went back to reading her book.

Erik quickly dressed and headed out the door to the city. He rode his own horse today and sped through the quiet streets of the early morning. He knew he didn't have to be at work for another two hours, but getting there early didn't seem to hurt anything. He glanced at his pocket watch and decided against going to work early. He thought he would pop in on the opera house this morning and see how well his money was being used for their newest production. With the new managers, everyone seemed to get an early start there, including his daughter whose schooling began at 7:30. He quickly turned his horse in the direction all the way across the city.

From what seemed like an eternity, he finally arrived a little after 7:30 and went to the ballet rehearsal rooms where Adrienne attended school taught by Meg. He peeked into the room to see most of the children there besides Adrienne. He wondered where she was and began to worry. What if something was wrong with her and Christine couldn't get to him? It was very unusual for Christine to have their daughter late for school. He waited for ten more minutes and decided to walk right in the room where Meg was already instructing warm-ups. As soon as she saw him, she instructed the children to continue their warm-ups and stopped to talk to him.

"Where's Adrienne? She's late isn't she?" Meg looked at him puzzled for a moment and answered,

"Didn't you know that she's ill? She has a cold and Christine kept her off yesterday and today."

"Oh geez! How did I not know this?" He responded irritably.

"I thought you would know that she was sick from the weekend." Meg said.

"I didn't see her this weekend, but now I feel horrible because I didn't know she had a cold." He said out of nervousness, because of his situation at home, he wasn't acting himself and he was saying strange things. Meg continued to look at him wondering why he was acting as if having a cold was a deadly disease.

"I shall go see her at once." He said pulling up his collar even higher to shield his mask from the dancing children, tipped his hat slightly at her and ran out of the room.

Christine woke up to the sound of pounding on her front door, the last day that she can sleep in and someone was already ruining it. She angrily kicked off the covers on her bed and checked on her ill daughter who was sleeping next to her. Every time Adrienne gets sick, she insists on sleeping with her mother as if it will help her recover faster or something.

The pounding on the front door continued and she quickly pulled on her robe and slippers and shut her bedroom door to block out the noise. She made her way across the main room to the front door and angrily pulled it open to see Erik standing there. She didn't have to say anything to sense his nervousness and quickly removed the scowl from her face and invited him in.

"Why didn't you tell me our daughter was sick?" He demanded loudly as soon as he stepped in.

"Erik, not so loud, I don't want you to wake her up!" Christine said in a loud whisper. He pulled off his hat and tossed it into a nearby chair and did the same with his cloak. Christine sat down on the couch and he sat beside her.

"I didn't think a cold was a big deal. She's barely even sick today but insisted on staying home and I was kind of tired myself, so we took the day off. We were both planning on sleeping in to catch up on our exhaustion, but that clearly didn't work. Erik, are you even listening?" Erik's sudden interest in his daughter's cold was quickly dissolved and he was unbuttoning his cufflinks and rolling his sleeves up.

"Jesus Christ it's hot in here." He complained. It suddenly dawned on Christine what was the matter with him.

"Oh I see, Gabrielle's is in the process of giving birth isn't she?" She said with sudden delight on her face. They were however friends now and depended on each other in a time of need which wasn't very often.

"Yes, and I can't stand it. She ordered me to go to work but I can't seem to concentrate on anything. I don't know why I am so nervous, I already have a child and I know this whole process." He said standing up and removing his vest as well. Christine reclined back on the couch a little and looked up at his tall figure.

"Yes, but this is a twenty-four hour a day child. I think that's what you're nervous about. You have to remember that you were barely there for Adrienne's middle of the night feedings and changings and rocking back to sleep."

"I know and I feel guilty about that, I am a horrible father." He said putting his sweaty head in his hand.

"No, it's just the way it was. I don't think that you're a bad father; I am just making a point. In a way, this is your first child." Erik's head shot up out of anger.

"Don't you or Adrienne ever think that I don't look upon her as my own!" Christine gave out a small laugh,

"You're going way over the top. That's not what I am saying at all. You're just nervous and you're acting hysterical. Go to work. Adrienne will be back in school tomorrow morning and she can see the new baby when you are ready, all right?" Erik just stood there and Christine rose from the couch and grabbed all of his belongings and shoved him out the front with them.

"Go." She ordered and closed the door in his face. She gave out a small laugh, rolled her eyes and began heading back to her bedroom when she heard another knock. She ran angrily back to the door and whipped it open,

"What Erik?" She asked angrily this time.

"I know you think I'm nervous and I don't know what I'm talking about but I just want you to know that I do care about you and Adrienne as my child and family. She is my daughter, my firstborn and you are her mother. Don't ever think differently and don't ever allow her to think that either." Christine nodded seriously and thanked him for telling her that. She quietly whispered goodbye and closed the door again.

Erik stood out in the hallway of the apartment building and dropped all of his belongings on the floor. He slowly buttoned his sleeves, put on his vest, tied his cloak and put on his hat before going out into the street again. Getting back on his horse, he rode in the direction of his office.

Later that day around 2:00 Jean knocked on Erik's office door. Erik looked up from the mess of a sketch he was making and shot up knocking things off of his drawing table.

"Is it time?" He asked almost in a scream.

"Well, you're driver is here to get you." Jean said with a smile. Erik grabbed his hat and cloak and rushed out the door past him.

"Lock up my office for me, will you?" Erik yelled back to him as he made his way down the hall. Jean smiled to himself and said to himself,

"Of course, my friend."

Gabrielle thrashed about on the bed in pain squeezed on the headboard. The midwife put a cold washcloth on her head to cool her off as she let out another loud moan.

"It won't be long now, Madame." She reassured Gabrielle while returning to the other end of the bed.

Erik burst through the front door and up the stairs where Catherine and the two maids were waiting anxiously outside the door. Michele and Lucie waited until the baby was born so they could go in the room and change the sheets and Gabrielle quickly.

"Can I go in there?" He asked all three of them seriously.

"No!" They all shouted at him at once. Shocked by their yelling he took his place to wait beside Catherine. An hour passed of them waiting and Christophe brought all three of them chairs and while the other women sat, Erik paced the hall waiting anxiously.

More hours passed and daylight turned into the early hours of evening and they continued to wait.

"How much longer, it's been eleven hours now!" Erik said more nervous than ever at this point. Finally a half hour after his outburst they heard crying from the other room. They all stood up and cheered. Erik hugged everyone, his mother-in-law and every member of the household staff. The door opened and the midwife asked the two maids to come in with their sheets and as Erik tried to follow them in the door was once again shut on him and locked.

"Damnit! I am the father, half of that baby is mine, and don't I get any rights!" He pounded on the door. Catherine yelled at him to stop and he did for a few moments while he remained angry at all those women in there except his beautiful wife.

Gabrielle stood leaning on Lucie in her bloody nightgown while Michele quickly changed all the sheets. The midwife put Erik and Gabrielle's son in the bassinet that they had ever since the first week they found out Gabrielle was having a baby. As soon as Michele had the bed changed, they all helped Gabrielle out of her nightgown, into a fresh one and back into bed. Lucie picked up the ruined laundry from the floor and the midwife asked Gabrielle if Erik and Catherine could come in.

"Just send in my husband." She said sleepily.

"I am going to send for the priest also to come baptize this child tonight." The midwife said before opening the door, Gabrielle simply nodded and waited for Erik.

The door opened and Erik jumped up from his chair,

"The Madame requested that only her husband come in for now." The midwife said to them and Erik bounded into the room locking the door behind him. He saw Gabrielle lying in the bed and could hear whining from the bassinet.

"Hello, darling." He said smiling at her and she pointed at the bassinet,

"Erik, go see your son." Tears welled up in his eyes as he walked over to the bed and kissed her before making his way anxiously over to the bassinet. He looked in and saw a tiny baby open its eyes and look at him.

"Pick him up and bring him over here." Gabrielle said quietly from the bed. He tried to remember his skills from Adrienne seven years ago and carefully lifted his son out and carried him over to Gabrielle. She held their son and Erik sat next to him as they stared at him. The baby yawned and closed his eyes.

"Well that's two children I didn't pass on my ugly face to." Erik said with a relief. Gabrielle gave a small smile and pulled back the blankets to reveal the baby's chest,

"He's got a little bit of some skin deformity here, though." She said quietly, Erik's eyes goggled out of his head, how could this be?

"It's not fair!" He said almost in a yell, but not quite loud enough to wake the baby. Gabrielle shifted their son from her right arm to left and placed her right hand on Erik's hand.

"It wouldn't matter if it were all over his face because you have it and I love you. This is just a tiny bit where no one can see it, so don't be worried, or upset, or even angry because no matter what, you and I both know this child has a much better fate than you ever had.

Awhile later as Erik and Gabrielle marveled at their baby, Father Duchesne came and was ready to baptize their child.

"What name have we decided on?" He asked Erik as he handed his son to the priest. Gabrielle answered from the bed,

"Erik the second." Erik smiled at her with tears in his eyes for sure while the priest baptized the child just as Gabrielle asked.